Dhaka, the heart of the country is the epicentre of corona virus with the highest corona infection along with the highest deaths. The Dhaka city is getting toxic and will remain spreading risk without ensuring proper health and hygiene standard. Due to global corona outbreak, we are probably heading to a different reality, a reality where we need to be more careful and sensitive for our health and safety issues.
Old Dhaka is the most densely populated and highly polluted area of the Dhaka city where several areas like Jatrabari, Babubazar have already been declared “hotspot” of corona for their rapid and large transmission of corona virus among the people. And the Subordinate Courts of Dhaka are situated in Kotwali Street of Old Dhaka, exact between the two aforesaid hotspot areas. Now having a concern for Dhaka court lawyers’ health and safety issues, let’s peep into the court environment specially interior and logistic facilities of court to examine the corona fighting preparation and post-corona precautionary management as well.
In the Dhaka court premise, there are three court buildings of Metropolitan Session Judge Court, Chief Judicial Magistrate, District and Session Judge Court (old building) and a Dhaka Bar Association Building. Also there is Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court in another part. All the three court buildings are high storied but each of them has only two lifts. The size and capacity of those two lifts are also not favourable. For example, the lifts of Metropolitan Session Judge Court building have capacity to carry eight persons at a time but practically they can carry only five persons.
The staircases are also narrow and it is impossible to use these for a large number of people at the same time. Consequently, people have to stand in a long queue for lifts and also the staircases are chaotic, crowded and suffocating all the time. There is always a huddle in front of lifts and in staircases as well. The scenario of other buildings here is same. Dhaka Bar Association building has two lifts common for both clients and lawyers and long human queue is always seen here.
Again, the court rooms of the District and Session Judge Court building are very small in proportion to the number of people. Number of cases remains pending before a court in a single day and large number of people gathers in a day before the same court. Each court room is huddled with so many people and the entire system is really suffocating.
Moreover, the ratio of number of lawyers and their sitting arrangement is not proportionate. There are only 6/7 common rooms for lawyers and in each, a gathering is seen of large number of them. On the other hand, floors of the court buildings are not neat and clean. Staircases, railings are full of dirt and washrooms are unhygienic, tree plants on flower tubs outside the court rooms are left without due and proper care.
Apart from the mismanagement of court buildings, the outside management of court premise is also frustrating. There is no waiting room or common room for clients in the whole court premise. Until the clients meet with the lawyers at their chamber, they have to wait here and there at the court premise which makes the court a chaotic one. Sometimes clients meet lawyers at their common room which is not even large enough to accommodate lawyers.
Another frustrated scenario is beggars and vendors carry out their activities in such a way that makes the court premise a “crowded park”. They beg from clients to clients, lawyers to lawyers and from visitors of courts as well. Some beggars and hawkers are also seen in court buildings, beside the court rooms. Moreover tea stalls, betel leaf stalls, cobblers, book sellers, fruit sellers and others gather to carry out their business in the court premise. Now, Dhaka Bar has approximately 23,000 lawyers and daily more than 50,000 people visit this premise. Thus, it is itself a hectic place and these unexpected and uncontrolled activities of vendors, beggars in the court premise make it more chaotic and gathered one.
Over all, the clambered atmosphere of numerous clients, lawyers and other outsiders along with some structural defects, the environment of Dhaka Subordinate Court is unhealthy and not favourable to standard health outline that is to be followed to fight against covid-19.
However, let’s hope, the unorganized court premise due to beggars, hawkers or outsiders can be controlled through taking proper and strict steps by the authority, but how the gatherings and huddles inside the court buildings or court rooms can be handled by this time because of its lack of logistic facilities and interior difficulties, that is a matter of great concern.
The top US scientist Dr Anthony Fauci said at a White House press briefing that gradually countries will again function as a society but … if you want to get to pre-corona virus,that might not ever happen in the sense that the threat is there. The “showstopper” to halt this global corona virus disruption will only be a vaccine, Fauci added.
Now until the vaccine is invented, we people need to maintain our own hygiene wherever we are. Perhaps, we need to maintain some specific health outline for years. Cleanliness from dirt and dust, social distancing, avoiding gathering will be our daily mandate. In this situation, when court proceeding will be resumed it will be difficult for lawyers in Dhaka to maintain social distancing or proper hygiene in handling corona virus threat in such non-spacious and suffocated court premise.
The defective infrastructure and agitated environment of Dhaka sub ordinate court will put the lawyers into risk of life in the post corona period. Worth mentioning, this clambered situation of the court environment will make all the stakeholders of court unsatisfied and frustrated. This entire situation may lead to serious failure of the core objective of court to ensure justice. Thus, the health and safety issue of the lawyers or clients must be ensured as far as possible.
Under this circumstance, “Virtual Court” is ray of hope but it is not exhaustive for the Subordinate Courts till now. Under the current perspective, virtual court is available to sub ordinate court lawyers only for bail hearing and thus the civil practitioner actually has nothing to do with virtual court. Even if its scope is extended with regard to sub ordinate courts, we need to consider that in a developing country like Bangladesh, all lawyers and clients are neither enough tech-friendly nor trained to involve in the virtual proceedings.
Case backlog, delay in disposal of cases and reasons for such delay should be now strictly regulated. Delay in issuing summon is one of the problems in civil litigation system and in fact, there is no systematic distribution of process between process servers which facilitates unethical practice and undue delay. The liberal attitude of the Court in respect of adjournment during examination or judgement delivery either for Court’s own advantage or for the convenience of the parties, is one of the main causes for unnecessary delay as every such adjournment takes months together. Also the execution is another lengthy process.
Due to this delay disposal, there is huge case backlog and too many cases are fixed for a trial in a day for which the court rooms and premise are always overburdened with lawyers, clients. Early disposal will lessen the case backlog and so case cause-list in a single day cannot be an access. Hence, court room hurdles may come under control. Also by this time, lawyers and other concerns can be trained for the virtual court proceedings properly for the sake of further betterment of this situation.
To ensure safety of Dhaka lawyers from covid-19 threat, focus should be given to suitability of their workplace that is court environment. In this regard, following measures may be considered;
- Safety tunnel, hand sanitizing point, thermal scanner etc need to be placed at different places of the court premise to regulate the health security of lawyers along with outsiders;
- Random activities of outsiders (beggars, hawkers) in the court premise should be banned;
- Separate clean and hygienic waiting room for clients needs to be arranged;
- Number of common rooms for lawyers’ sitting arrangement should be increased;
- To focus on early disposal of cases to decrease case backlog and daily large cause-list.
- To take measures to train the lawyers for involving in virtual court may be taken for effective digitalization of justice system.
Maintaining proper social distancing and hygiene will be a challenging task for the lawyers and is quite impossible to carry out too in such environment. Therefore, every single attempt with regard to the health and safety issues of our lawyer community to fight with COVID threat should be taken by the concerned authority as well as steps for upholding our justice system with proper planning and understanding.
Writer:
Mahmuda Amir Eva, Student of LL.M, Department of law, Jagannath University.
Endnote:
1. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/life-normal-coronavirus-scientist-200407101112133.html, last access: May 11, 2020.
2. “Covid-19 and virtual courts: are we ready?” published on 18th April, 2020, https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/views/covid-19-and-virtual-courts-are-we-ready-1587219493, last access: May 12, 2020.
3. “Half of the country’s covid-19 infection in Dhaka city alone”, published on 11th May, 2020, https://tbsnews.net/coronavirus-chronicle/covid-19-bangladesh/bangladesh-reports-highest-daily-spike-1034-covid-19-cases, last access: May 12, 2020.